Officials from India will extend their Washington visit to try to reach agreement on a trade deal with U.S. President Donald Trump’s administration and address lingering concerns on both sides, two Indian government sources said on Monday.

Trade talks between India and the U.S. have hit roadblocks over disagreements on import duties for auto components, steel, and farm goods, ahead of Trump’s July 9 deadline to impose reciprocal tariffs.

The Indian delegation had been expected to conclude discussions by last Friday, but was staying on until at least Monday evening to iron out differences and move towards an agreement, officials said, declining to be named as the discussions are private.

“There are certain disagreements over opening up the agriculture and dairy sectors, though India has offered tariff concessions on 90% of tariff lines. A final call will be taken by the political leadership of the two countries,” one of the government sources said.

“The Indian delegation could stay for another one to two days if discussions continue,” the second source said.

India’s commerce ministry and the U.S. Trade Representative Office did not immediately respond to requests for comment.

Agriculture and dairy are “big red lines” for India in its ongoing trade negotiations with the U.S., Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman told the Financial Express newspaper in an interview published on Monday.

“Yes, I’d love to have an agreement, a big, good, beautiful one; why not?” Sitharaman said, adding that an early conclusion of the trade deal would serve India better.

Trump said last week that America was going to have a “very big” trade deal with India, but gave no details.

(Reuters)

Residents of the world’s driest desert – the Atacama in northern Chile, had woken up last Thursday to a jaw-dropping spectacle: snow.

“INCREDIBLE! The Atacama Desert, the world’s most arid, is COVERED IN SNOW,” the ALMA observatory, situated 2,900 meters (9,500 feet) above sea level, wrote on X, alongside a video of vast expanses covered in a dusting of white.

The observatory added that while snow is common on the nearby Chajnanator Plateau, situated at over 5,000 meters and where its gigantic telescope is situated, it had not had snow at its main facility in a decade.

The Atacama, home to the world’s darkest skies, has for decades been the go-to location for the world’s most advanced telescopes.

The ALMA telescope, which was developed by the European Southern Observatory, the US National Radio Astronomy Observatory and the National Astronomical Observatory of Japan, is widely recognized as being the most powerful.

(Excerpts & video : AFP)

India has refused to sign a joint statement at the Shanghai Cooperation Organisation (SCO) summit in China as it did not reflect the country’s concerns on terrorism, India’s foreign ministry has said.
Spokesperson Randhir Jaiswal said on Thursday that India’s desire for its concerns to be reflected was “not acceptable to one particular country”.

While he did not share more details, Indian media reported that Delhi refused to sign the statement after it omitted the Pahalgam attack, a deadly militant attack that killed 26 tourists in Indian-administered Kashmir.

India has blamed its neighbour Pakistan for sheltering a militant group it blames for the attack. Pakistan has rejected the allegations.

China, Russia and four Central Asian countries formed the SCO in 2001 as a countermeasure to limit the influence of the West in the region. India and Pakistan joined in 2017.

The latest signing ceremony took place during the SCO defence ministers’ meeting in China, held ahead of the leaders’ annual summit this autumn.

According to media reports, India perceived the joint statement as being “pro-Pakistan” after it omitted the Pahalgam attack but mentioned militant activities in Balochistan.

Pakistan has accused India of backing the Balochistan freedom movement, which India denies.

After the meeting, India’s Defence Minister Rajnath Singh urged the SCO to hold the perpetrators of cross-border terrorism accountable, though he didn’t explicitly mention Pakistan.

“Some countries use cross-border terrorism as an instrument of policy and provide shelter to terrorists. There should be no place for such double standards. SCO should not hesitate to criticise such nations,” he said in a statement.

India and Pakistan have fought three wars over Kashmir, which they claim to own in full but administer in parts.

The Pahalgam attack in April brought the two nuclear-armed countries to the brink of another war.

In May, India launched a series of airstrikes, targeting sites it called “terror infrastructure in Pakistan and Pakistan-administered Kashmir”.

Pakistan denied the claim that these were terror camps and also responded by firing missiles and deploying drones into Indian territory.

The hostilities between the two countries continued until 10 May when US President Donald Trump announced that India and Pakistan had agreed to a “full and immediate ceasefire”, brokered by the US.

India has, however, consistently denied any intervention by the US.

(BBC News)